By
Dan |
Published
Jun 24 2009, 02:24 PM
This week, the PocketFives.com Podcast sponsored by Carbon Poker is privileged to welcome one of the game’s best. Shaun shaundeeb Deeb, who sits at number two on the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, joins us this week fielding member questions about his career. Deeb is the quintessential high-volume tournament player and is camped out in Las Vegas for the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP). His tournament accolades include a win in a Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Heads-Up event for $115,000 and a victory in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) $300 Pot Limit Omaha Rebuy for $144,000. If there’s a rebuy tournament out there, then chances are Deeb has won it. Let’s recap what the tournament veteran had to say.
Deeb has three in the money finishes at the 2009 WSOP and is slowly building up his live poker resume. For the high-stakes online grinder, the adjustment has been pretty straightforward. He told the PocketFives.com Podcast, “The differences between live and online poker are that there are physical tells in the way people act and how they look. You clearly don’t have that online. You have much more immediate information. Online, your decisions are more math-based.” PocketFivers have grabbed 13 of the first 41 bracelets up for grabs at the 2009 WSOP, or 32%. Last year, members of the online poker community claimed eight pieces of hardware.
A user-submitted question asked Deeb about his philosophy on raising in tournaments. The top-tier player revealed, “A lot of my decisions on hand raising are based on what stage a tournament is in, who’s behind, what their stack sizes are, and some game flow aspects. In general, I’m just playing stack sizes and position.” Throughout his tournament career, he has often found himself treading with fewer than 20 big blinds in his stack. However, he doesn’t panic. He shared his mindset while on the short-stack: “With under 20 big blinds, you’re not going to be able to open nearly as many hands. When you raise, you’re more committed with a big chunk of your stack. I don’t mind being under 20 and I’m comfortable there.”
In March, Deeb took down the PocketFives.com Monthly PLB title. Over the course of the 31 day period, he posted wins in the PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker $100 rebuys, the Stars $100,000 Guaranteed, and the site’s Nightly Hundred Grand. On how he handles the big swings associated with online poker, Deeb explained, “Part of the reason I play high volume is to even out variance short-term and long-term. If you play more tournaments, even some lower stakes ones, you’re still going to end up winning more often. That’s the mindset I have and why I play everything.”
When we spoke to Deeb, he was 14-tabling, which he described as a “day off.” On how he’s able to navigate the virtual felts online and have an insightful conversation about poker at the same time, Deeb noted, “There are always people around me hanging out while I’m grinding, so I am used to playing a bunch of tables and talking. It’s not that hard once you get used to it.” When he first started being a serious grinder, Deeb’s day consisted of waking up at 11:00am and registering for tournaments between Noon and 10:00pm. Each 16 hour day would typically consist of about 70 tournaments. I’m tired just writing about it. Now, he's living with fellow PocketFiver Adam A_Junglen Junglen (pictured at left) in the Panorama Towers in Las Vegas.
Finally, no article about Deeb would be complete without recapping his run on Ultimate Bet’s blackjack tables two years ago. He wagered over $1 million in the span of a week, winning $300,000 in the process. The PocketFiver recalled, “I ran better than I run in tournaments in UltimateBet Blackjack. I won a bunch of bets and was playing pretty high-stakes with a lot of hands. I took them for a decent amount of money. They weren’t too happy and actually thought I was cheating because it was so abnormal how much I was winning.”
Check out the rest of this week’s PocketFives.com Podcast featuring Shaun shaundeeb Deeb.
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